Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood of St. Petersburg - Russia
The Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood (Russian: Храм Спаса на Крови) is one of the main Russian Orthodox churches of St. Petersburg, Russia. It is also called Cathedral on the Blood-Spilled or Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (Собор Воскресения Христова), which is its official name. This name refers to the blood shed during the assassination of Emperor Alexander II who was mortally wounded there on March 1, 1881 (March 13, 1881 in the Gregorian calendar). It is not a diocesan cathedral (seat of the eparchy), but a collegiate church, which is incompletely translated into French by cathedral.
Construction and features
The construction began in 1883 during the reign of Alexander III, as a memorial to his father Alexander II. Work progressed slowly and was finally completed in 1907 under the reign of Nicholas II. It is the imperial family, helped by many patrons who financed the construction.
The cathedral, located along the Griboyedov Canal, can not escape the eye of the visitor. At this level, there is embankment on both banks of the canal. As the Emperor's convoy passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an activist Narodnaya Volia exploded. The Emperor, shaken but nevertheless safe, came out of the car to help the wounded. Another conspirator seized his chance and detonated another bomb, killing himself and fatally wounding the emperor. Alexander II, who was bleeding profusely, was transported to the Winter Palace, where he died an hour later.
A temporary sanctuary was erected on the site of the attack while the project of a permanent memorial was studied. It was decided that the portion of the road where the assassination took place would be surrounded by the walls of a collegiate church. This section of the embankment was extended into the canal to leave space for the sanctuary within the building and for a memorial to be the exact location of the assassination. Inside the building, the ciborium, a very elaborate sanctuary, was built at the precise location of the assassination, decorated with topaz and lapis lazuli, as well as other semi-precious stones. Surrounded by so rich a decoration, the simple gravels on which the blood of the tsar flowed which are exposed on the floor of the sanctuary offer a striking contrast.
Architecture
From an architectural point of view, the cathedral is different from other structures in St. Petersburg. The architecture of the city is dominated by baroque and neoclassical styles, but Saint-Sauveur-sur-le-Sang-Versé refers to medieval Russian architecture. Indeed, it was built at the time of romantic nationalism. It resembles the 17th century churches of Yaroslavl and the famous St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The church contains more than 7,500 m2 of mosaics, more than any other church in the world, according to the restorers. This record could be surpassed by the basilica-cathedral of Saint-Louis which shelters 7 700 m2 of mosaics.
The interior was designed by well-known Russian artists of the time, including Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel. However, the chief architect Alfred Parland was relatively unknown, of German origin of the Baltic and Russian subject, native of the capital. It is not surprising that construction cost far more than the original budget. Indeed, it was estimated at 3.6 million rubles while the final cost amounted to no less than 4.6 million rubles. The walls and ceilings inside the cathedral are entirely covered with intertwined mosaics with carefully designed borders. The majority of representations include biblical scenes.
The Russian revolution of 1917
Following the Russian Revolution, the cathedral was looted and sacked, which seriously damaged its interior. The Soviet government closed the cathedral in the early 1930s. During the Second World War, when there were many famine victims because of the Leningrad siege by the German army, the cathedral served as a vegetable warehouse. where the sardonic name of Savior on potatoes. It was significantly damaged. After the war, it served as a warehouse for the nearby opera house.
Current times
In July 1970, the management of the cathedral was transferred to St. Isaac's Cathedral (which was then the museum of atheism or the museum of history and art very profitable of the city) and the collections of the Cathedral were used to restore it. It opened again in August 1997 after twenty-seven years of restoration work. However, it has not been consecrated again and does not serve as a full time place of worship. It is currently a Museum of Mosaic. Even before the revolution, this collegiate church was not a public place of worship since it was exclusively dedicated to the memory of the murdered emperor. The cathedral is now one of the obligatory passages for tourists from St. Petersburg.
